Lovely new vocal works by song specialists.

Soprano Jean Danton has performed extensively throughout the United States in recitals, oratorio and opera. She has appeared as soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society under Christopher Hogwood, the Oregon Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, the Boston Pops and the Boston Baroque. She is a graduate of the opera program at the Hartt School of Music. Dominick Argento's Six Elizabethan Songs exists in two versions: the first written in Florence in 1957 for tenor and piano and the second, revised by the composer in 1962 for soprano and Baroque ensemble (the version presented here). Songs About Spring for soprano and piano is a setting of five poems by e.e. cummings on the theme of spring. The third song of the group, "in Just spring" was a favorite of cummings himself. The English composer Arnold Cooke was born in Yorkshire in 1906. He studied with Edward Dent and in Berlin with Paul Hindemith. He taught at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College. In Three Songs of Innocence, Cooke has set three poems from William Blake's "Songs of Innocence" (1789) for soprano, clarinet and piano. For Nocturnes the composer has selected texts by five British poets. Appropriately, they all describe night scenes. William Moylan holds the Doctor of Arts degree from Ball State University, Master of Music degree from the University of Toronto, and the Bachelor of Music degree form the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, all in music composition. He composed his For a Sleeping Child - Lullabies and Midnight Musings especially for Jean Danton. The four songs were composed in October of 1995 and revised in January 1996.

Review:

"An enterprising program, especially attractive for the rare performance of anything by Arnold Cooke, the only Brit represented here.Argento's Elizabethan settings are a delight and are presented in the version with Baroque ensemble accompaniment." (The Delian)